In general, networks and computers operate in different manners. Networks operate by transferring data in streams and/or packets. Streams may be bit-sized, byte-sized, or otherwise broken down. Packets may be of relatively large size, such as 64, 512, or more bytes each. Computers operate by processing data, typically in well-defined small sizes, such as bytes (8 bits), words (16 bits), double words (32 bits) and so on. At the interface between a computer and a network, a translation or reorganization of data may be necessary. This may include reorganizing data from a series of packets into a format useful to a processor.
Reorganization of data may be performed at a memory storage location level. In particular, bytes or words may arrive in parts due to compression and packetization of data and also due to the different paths taken by the data for transport over a network. The data as provided may be in an order which was useful for transmission purposes, but is not particularly useful for processing within a system, or for transmission over a different type of network. For example, the data may arrive as bytes which may be stored in memory, but the data may effectively arrive out of order relative to what a processor would expect in a system. In such an example, it may be necessary to re-align and reassemble the data in a form in which it existed prior to transmission.
Moreover, providing data to a processor of a host system in an easy to use manner may be desirable. Processors in host systems are typically used to perform most of the operations of the host system. To the extent that the processor needs to reorganize data for its use, this taxes limited processor resources, and potentially taxes other resources such as datapath-related or bandwidth-related resources in the system.